Marketing & Business Building Strategies for the Cleaning & Restoration Industries

Facebook has been in the news a lot lately…with their Initial Public Offering people are speculating Facebook could potentially create thousands of millionaires overnight.

But I’m not here to talk about how to make money buying Facebook stock…that’s a conversation you can have with your financial adviser.

What you are going to discover today is…

The Stuff Marketing Dreams Are Made Of

This is capitalism at it’s best and as an entrepreneur you can profit greatly from the opportunities Facebook is affording to businesses today.

Dean Jackson and I recently conducted an I Love Marketing™ interview with two of the top Facebook marketing experts in the world, Perry Marshall and Thomas Meloche. (These guys have just released a new book titled, Ultimate Guide To Facebook Advertising and I highly recommend you read it.) What Perry & Tom reveal during this interview is invaluable to your business as you face a changing consumer and marketplace.

Even if you know nothing about using “paid for” advertising on the web, (i.e. Google Adwords) you could and should be using Facebook…Big or small you can make a lot of money on Facebook…and it’s not in the way you might have thought of “social media” in the past.

Hint: It Has Nothing To Do With “Posting Updates”

Despite what you may have been told, you’re not going to make a significant amount of money by simply posting updates on Facebook. For one thing…only about ¼ of your “audience” will even see your update in their feed. The way Facebook works is people see the postings of the friends they interact the most with, so unless you are “interacting” with your clients through Facebook, your “status updates” will go unseen. And most likely, the people who do get them will find an ad in their “feed” more of an annoyance than anything else. (Case in point: People go to Facebook to escape…not think.)

If you want to use Facebook for take-it-to-the-bank, trackable, direct response marketing…then you need to take advantage of the paid advertising available through Facebook. Perry & Tom share some really exciting stuff about this opportunity. For starters, if you have used Google Adwords, forget everything you think you know about “pay per click” advertising when it comes to Facebook. Perry says Facebook and Google are two very different “animals”, and he would know since he is also the author of the best selling book on the planet on how to successfully make money with Google Adwords. As he puts it, with Google you are appealing your prospect’s “head” and with Facebook you appeal to their “heart”.

And that is what makes advertising on Facebook so special. You can appeal to your client’s heart and passions. So when they are looking at photos of grandma or of their BFF’S last vacation…you can be presenting them with a nice little “impression” (ad) off on the side of the page. A message that is relevant to their likes…but not annoying…and you can do it for less than $2 dollars per day. (According to these experts that’s a healthy ad budget for Facebook!)

The First Step You Need To Take To Unlock Facebook Profits…

I pressed these two for an “easy to implement” step for your business and here is the idea that could be worth thousands to your bottom line this year.

Take every opportunity to get your clients to “like” you on Facebook. Okay, that might sound underwhelming, and maybe even cliché by now. Most people already have “Like us on Facebook” plastered across their websites and ad copy.

But you need to take an active role in this. You or your technicians are in several of your client’s homes per day. While you are in front of them, get them to log onto Facebook and “like” you. Carry around an iPad and have them do it on there. Offer them a discount or a coupon towards their next cleaning if they do. Send out a campaign to your existing clients with an offer that gets them to give you those “likes”.

Getting those “likes” will build you a “list” of your clients that it used to take a team of market analysts months to compile. And even then it wasn’t as comprehensive and your Facebook list will be. You will have access to all the “commonalities” of your target client, access to their friends; you will know their likes and dislikes. You can target and tailor your marketing messages to your audience…you will speak their “language” like never before.

It’s The New Frontier Of Marketing…

What’s really cool is “the good old days of Facebook” are happening right now. And you can be a part of this revolution for mere pennies. You really owe it to yourself and your business to master this type of Facebook advertising. (According to Tom & Perry, 99 out of 100 people who try to advertise on Facebook fail miserably at it.)

And when you do “get” how to advertise on Facebook…not only will you make money with ads that cost you mere pennies per lead…but you will find it’s a game changer. And game changers don’t come along every day.

Keep it E.L.F.™!

JOE

P.S. For more information on this subject, listen to my interview on www.ilovemarketing.com episode 53, the one with Perry Marshall and Tom Meloche.

Today’s post is a friendly heads-up for Piranha Members and other Cleaners and Restorers using Social Media to grow their Cleaning and Restoration business.

Most Piranha Members are ethically and effectively monetizing their internet presence by dominating local search engine results pages (for free) as well as monetizing social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.).In fact, Piranha Coaching Members have had advanced, but easy “how to” step-by-step coaching on this stuff.

Today however we wanted to share this some insights with every RichCleanerBlog Reader, Cleaner and Restorer.

Recently a software program launched charging from $23 per month up to $100 per month that is said to automatically find and connect potential Cleaning Clients on Twitter and then automatically solicit your Cleaning services to those prospects.However, automated software like this could actually get your Twitter account terminated… BUT, there are ways to generate and convert leads from Twitter that are FREE and won’t get your account terminated.That’s what this post is all about.

The following comes from one of Piranha’s “Expert Coaches” – Dan Hollings, Internet Strategies for “The Secret” hit movie and Twitter (www.TwitterTwenius.com).For several years, Dan has taught Piranha Members how to dominate local search engine results pages and monetize social media at our live events, in several of our Coaching Membership Calls and even on this blog…

Here’s the insider’s scoop from Dan Holling’s on How To Create a FREE Twitter Machine to Find and Connect With Potential Carpet Cleaning & Restoration Clients:

It’s easy to be lured into automated systems that promise to do all the work while you sit back and just cash big checks. Lately, there have been a string of robotic systems related to Social Media and Twitter, some of which claim to not only find and close customers for you… but from their sales page, you’d think they’d actually do the job and make coffee too.

– If you send large numbers of unsolicited @replies in an attempt to spam a service or link
– If you send large numbers of duplicate @replies
– If you post duplicate content over multiple accounts or multiple duplicate updates on one account

If you violate even ONE of these rules, even ONE time. You might as well call it quits for Twitter, because your account may be terminated or delisted from search. Worse yet, you’ll get no customers and you’ll lose money.

So, with that out of the way, let’s look at ONE way to potentially find prospects and customers on Twitter based on keyword searches. This strategy accomplishes what other systems charge hundreds of dollars for, without risking your account and for little, if any money.

AND… to keywords that might lead you to customers talking about the services you provide.

NOTE: You can add up to 10 keywords for free (that should be plenty)

STEP THREE

These ALERTS will be emailed to you (as tweets are found)

OR… you may view the results (as found) within the TweetBeep admin

Read the Tweets the system finds.

STEP FOUR

If a tweet is found by TweetBeep and seems potentially related to your services, you can tweet them a short PERSONAL (not automated) message. Do not use the same reply message for every response.

You should also FOLLOW this person on Twitter.

The more HUMAN your message reads, the better. Don’t pitch, hype or try to sell directly… instead be friendly, personal and helpful. If you like, add your Free Recorded Message, but only if it seems appropriate.

THAT’S IT

You have created a Twitter Machine (ie: strategy) that automates the “locating” of potential customers, yet does not insult these potential customers with an obvious automated message. Plus, you are not violating any of Twitters rules… and DRUM ROLL PLEASE…

It’s F R E E !!

BONUS TIP: Offering a free Consumer Awareness Guide might be a good idea. But only if a customer and interaction seem appropriate. However, do NOT offer it to every Twitter user you interact with.